Oxfam: Health conditions are “horrific” in southern Gaza

Paris (agencies)

Yesterday, Oxfam denounced the horrific sanitary conditions in the Al-Mawasi area in the southern Gaza Strip, where Palestinians who have taken refuge there since the start of the Israeli attack on Rafah have only one toilet for every 4,000 people, on average.
The non-governmental organization said in a statement: “Living conditions are so horrific that there are only 121 latrines for 500,000 people in Al-Mawasi – which means that every 4,130 people have to share one latrine.”
Oxfam quoted Mira, an employee of the organization who currently lives in Al-Mawasi after having been forced to flee seven times since October, as saying: “The situation is inhumane, the conditions are unbearable, there is no clean water, and people are forced to use sea water.”
On Monday, sewage water flooded a camp for displaced people in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, after a pipe exploded.
Oxfam said in the report, entitled “The risk of famine increases as Israel makes aid to Gaza impossible,” that while “1.7 million people” are currently concentrated in less than a fifth of the Gaza Strip, “Israel’s continuous air and ground bombardment and obstruction “The deliberate nature of the humanitarian response makes it virtually impossible for humanitarian organizations to reach trapped and starving civilians.” Oxfam’s Middle East and North Africa director, Sally Abi Khalil, said: “When famine is declared, it will be too late, and when hunger causes more deaths, no one will be able to deny the dire consequences of Israel’s deliberate, illegal and cruel denial of aid.” ».
In this context, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned yesterday of the repercussions of stopping the operation of water desalination plants in the Gaza Strip, calling on the Israeli authorities to “provide immediate access to water.” The UN agency said in a tweet on the “X” platform: “Due to the lack of fuel in Gaza, important water desalination plants have stopped working.”
She continued: “People do not have enough water. Survival has become a major challenge.”
She explained that the cessation of these stations forces “families, including children, to walk long to get water,” calling on the Israeli authorities to “provide immediate access to water.”
The Gaza Strip municipalities did not issue an immediate comment on the locations of the desalination plants that stopped working, but since the beginning of the war these plants have witnessed repeated shutdowns due to running out of fuel.
During the past months, a number of desalination plants returned to work after international bodies provided them with limited quantities of fuel as part of humanitarian aid.